Residents in limited Antioch, Pittsburg areas can hail a ride through a smartphone app

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Antioch City Council members Monica Wilson, left, and Lamar Thorpe examine the outside of a new Tri MyRide bus while parked at the East Contra Costa BART extension station in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, June 17, 2019. Tri Delta Transit launched an on-demand shuttle service called “Try MyRide” which is available in neighborhoods near the Antioch and Pittsburg/Bay Point BART stations. The 6-month pilot program allows customers to use an app called “Microtransit” and request a Tri MyRide bus to picked them up. The cost of the ride is $2.00. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Tri Delta Transit manager of customer service and marketing Maria Korbay shows her excitement as Antioch City Council members Lamar Thorpe, left and Monica Wilson take a seat inside a new Tri MyRide bus in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, June 17, 2019. Tri Delta Transit launched an on-demand shuttle service called “Try MyRide” which is available in neighborhoods near the Antioch and Pittsburg/Bay Point BART stations. The 6-month pilot program allows customers to use an app called “Microtransit” and request a Try MyRide bus to picked them up. The cost of the ride is $2.00. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

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Tri Delta Transit special project analyst Uriel Diaz shows off the Microtransit app used for the Try MyRide shuttle service that launched today in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, June 17, 2019. Tri Delta Transit launched an on-demand shuttle service called “Try MyRide” which is available in neighborhoods near the Antioch and Pittsburg/Bay Point BART stations. The 6-month pilot program allows customers to use an app called “Microtransit” and request a Try MyRide bus to picked them up. The cost of the ride is $2.00. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Driver Ron Dolhanyk drives a Tri MyRide bus in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, June 17, 2019. Tri Delta Transit launched an on-demand shuttle service called “Try MyRide” which is available in neighborhoods near the Antioch and Pittsburg/Bay Point BART stations. The 6-month pilot program allows customers to use an app called “Microtransit” and request a Try MyRide bus to picked them up. The cost of the ride is $2.00. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

View of the new Tri MyRide bus while parked at the East Contra Costa BART extension station in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, June 17, 2019. Tri Delta Transit launched an on-demand shuttle service called “Try MyRide” which is available in neighborhoods near the Antioch and Pittsburg/Bay Point BART stations. The 6-month pilot program allows customers to use an app called “Microtransit” and request a Try MyRide bus to picked them up. The cost of the ride is $2.00. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

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If you live in a neighborhood near the Antioch or Pittsburg BART station, you can now hail a customized bus ride with a smartphone app to a limited number of stops using Tri Delta Transit’s new Tri MyRide service.

Eastern Contra Costa County Transit Authority’s new on-demand shuttle service, which launched Monday, will operate as a six-month pilot program on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“This is like bus-meets-ride-hailing service kind of mushed up into one with all of the benefits of a large transit agency that has a lot of experience and history like Tri Delta Transit,” Tri Delta Transit marketing director Maria Korbay said. “So, it’s really a simple service.”

The service is the latest in a string trotted out by Bay Area transportation agencies trying new ways to serve the suburbs through smaller 12-seat buses on demand.

Similar to Uber and Lyft, the Tri MyRide service uses a smartphone app for riders to schedule customized curb-to-curb trips. The rides can initiate anywhere in the Hillcrest/Antioch BART or San Marco/Pittsburg Bay Point BART service areas to go to the nearest BART station or to one of several designated shopping centers.

Under the new service, customers must first choose either the Pittsburg or Antioch or Pittsburg/Bay Point service area. The service area in Antioch extends from Deer Valley on the west to Lone Tree Way and south to Highway 4 to the east and north. The San Marco/Pittsburg Bay Point BART area extends from Bailey Road on the east to Tampico Drive on the west and Highway 4 on the north.

One of two service areas of the new Tri MyRide shuttle service is the SanMarco/Pittsburg Bay Point BART area.(Courtesy Tri Delta Transit)–

“The reason we chose these particular areas is, No. 1, we wanted them small; we wanted to really optimize the service,” Korbay said. “We didn’t want to make it such a big area that it would take forever to get from one end of the area to the other.”

Some neighborhoods, especially in the San Marco area, have many cul-du-sacs, and no way for big buses to service them, so the BART stations end up filled up with cars, she said.

“We’re ending up with a lot of congestion in the BART stations with nowhere to park, and that causes an issue,” Korbay added.

At $2 a ride, the service is about a third the cost of traditional ride-hailing services, and accepts all types of fare transit passes except Clipper cards. In addition, the buses have bicycle racks and are wheelchair-accessible.

One of two service areas of the new Tri MyRide shuttle service is the Hillcrest/Antioch BART area, which is bounded by Deer Valley Road and Lone Tree Way and Highway 4 in Antioch. (Courtesy Tri Delta Transit)

The app, called Microtranist by TransLoc, is connected to software that allows the bus drivers to shuttle passengers efficiently, Korbay said. Customers within the service area must first download the app to their smartphone to request a ride. They then will be notified of an estimated pickup time, be able to track their ride in real time and be alerted when the shuttle has arrived and reaches its destination.

The new microtransit services — the first offered in East Contra Costa — are intended to complement existing public transportation services. By providing flexible, on-demand transportation services, transit agencies are bringing improved mobility and greater accessibility to the communities they serve, Korbay said.

Antioch resident Lyn Ramseier said she would consider taking such a shuttle if it were convenient.

“It’s coming to your home, you don’t have to stand on the street waiting for someone to pick you up,” she said. “… It sounds like a valuable service for the elderly or people who don’t have cars.”

Ramseier also said she would use it to take to BART for leisure trips when time isn’t a factor.

Tri-Delta’s marketing director noted that one of the advantages of the new service is riders can use the app to track where a shuttle bus is to estimate when it will arrive.

“The cool thing is you can actually watch and manage it…. You can track my vehicle (shuttle bus) that is coming,” she said.

In 2017 AC Transit launched a similar service out of Newark, Union City, Castro Valley and Fremont. Called FLEX service, it blends on-demand rides with traditional bus routes and allows passengers to book rides in advance to pick up shuttles at the nearest bus stop.

Krieg said what’s different about Tri Delta Transit’s new service is that it does not replace routes, but rather is an addition to the regular buses and paratransit already offered.

“We (Tri Delta Transit) started in 1977 and this is about the wildest thing we’ve ever done,” Krieg said. “But the world is changing, people are changing, their demands are changing in terms of how they get where and when, and standing on the corner waiting for a bus to come isn’t the way people want to move anymore, so we are excited about this six-month trial.”

Krieg said the transit company is taking suggestions on other neighborhoods that might be served by such a system, which could expand depending on how the pilot program goes.

Judith Prieve is an East Bay journalist. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has worked as a reporter, features editor and assistant metro editor at newspapers in Wisconsin and Northern California and has been at what is now the Bay Area News Group for more than 25 years.